Arcuri's Career Moves Based On Staying In Shape

June 19, 1985|By Beth Rhodes of The Sentinel Staff

Ellen Arcuri splurged Monday and had a peanutbutter cookie. It was kind of a reward for her finish on Saturday when she won the Ms. Volusia County bodybuilding middleweight title and was third in the division for the Space Coast title in a contest held at DeLand High School.

Such splurges are few and far between as the 33-year-old operating room nurse maintains a well-sculptured physique. Arcuri has become so accustomed to her self-inflicted deprivation, it doesn't even taste right to eat like a fat person.

It had been so long since Arcuri had eaten fatty foods the butter sauce that Saturday night's celebration dinner was prepared in was hard to swallow. ''It tasted like slime in my mouth,'' she recalled.

The diet is only part of the love/hate relationship Arcuri has with bodybuilding. After spending eight hours on her feet at work, she said, it's hard to force herself to go home and run in the hot sun and then go work out at night. But that's what it takes for her to be satisfied with her body.

Arcuri said she is a former professional dancer who had ''gone to seed.'' She was doing aerobics, but it wasn't strenuous enough for her. So 2 1/2 years ago when she performed her aerobics routine at a bodybuilding contest, she became inspired by one of the contestants.

''When I saw Georgia Miller Fudge up on that stage looking like a golden goddess, I thought if she can look like that at 40, I can look like that at 30,'' Arcuri said.

On the six-month anniversary of that night, Arcuri came in second in the lightweight and over-30 division of the King and Queen of Crystal River contest.

Just as a lark, and to get her feet wet in a big competition, she entered the Gold Coast contest the next week -- and won. She was first in the over-30 division and third overall.

Since then, it has been one title after the other. Arcuri barely gets through one contest before she starts preparing for the next, which this time happens to be the Central Florida contest in Orlando on July 20. And she expects to win it -- or at least her coach expects her to.

Arcuti began to train with Scott Edwards, the girls track coach at Father Lopez High School, a couple of weeks ago. When she began training, her husband, Robert, wasn't too crazy about the idea of his wife having more muscles than he did. He has since become her biggest fan and her biggest critic. Robert, a teacher at Lopez, was the one who recruited Edwards to help. ''I've accomplished more in the past two and half weeks with Scott as a coach than in the past two years,'' Arcuri said.

Her workout has been so much more intense than ever before. ''He pushes you so far beyond what you feel you can do until you're almost in tears, and that's the kind of workout you have to do to achieve the correct results,'' Arcuri said.

Edwards has members of his track team work out with weights extensively, although he had never actually trained a bodybuilder. In fact, Edwards had not even seen a contest until Saturday. But the same principles of instruction still applied.

A few things are different, though. Edwards said he usually trains ''girls with jalopy bodies and Mercedes engines. It's the first time I've trained someone with a Mercedes body and jalopy engine.''

Arcuri said she suffers from asthma and a heart murmur, but her cardiologist has said her heartbeat has gotten stronger along with her body.

Edwards' in-home workout room may be lacking in glamor, but his program isn't lacking in intensity.

''When you're getting ready for competition and dieting down, you can't drive yourself the way you need to be driven like someone who knows you're capacity and limits,'' Arcuri said.

Arcuri finds it hard to keep going when she doesn't do as well in a contest as she had hoped. But that doesn't happen often. If she doesn't feel she's ready, she doesn't compete.

''I'm an egotist. And I'm not going to get up on stage not looking the best I can,'' Arcuri said.

Between her and Edwards' determination, Arcuri should look her best ever come July 20. But that's only her immediate goal. She would like to go professional.

She already has the benefit of having a sponsor, Suzanne Arthur, the owner of Body Works. She has also enjoyed some monetary gain modeling for swimsuit and spa ads, with 16 year olds, she adds proudly.

Arcuri would like for the bodybuilding to be a lead into additional endeavors such as commercials and acting.

Regardless of where her hobby takes her, she plans to get there in shape. She said she doesn't intend to be a 70-year-old bodybuilder, but she's never really been happy with herself when she's out of shape and she doesn't intend to get that way.